The Foreign Exchange

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeart Radio.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
Supremo, Rollbrivo Supremo, Roll Call, Suprema Supremo Roll Call.

Speaker 3 (00:21):
Suprivo roll Yo. Is the season?

Speaker 1 (00:24):
Yeah, like I sheared the light. Yeah, I have a
good reason yeah to talk about that site.

Speaker 4 (00:33):
Supreval Suprema roll Call.

Speaker 5 (00:39):
My name is Sugar.

Speaker 6 (00:40):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (00:41):
Is this thing on? Yeah, it just took so long
to start. Yeah, my buzz is gone.

Speaker 2 (00:49):
Supprivo Rova Sprevo roll.

Speaker 7 (00:55):
I'm unpaid bill.

Speaker 8 (00:56):
Yeah, and lordy lord, let's talk about Yeah and okay,
player boys Suprema.

Speaker 2 (01:05):
So Suprema Spriva spri.

Speaker 1 (01:11):
It's like, yeah, oh my god, yeah, yeah, okay.

Speaker 2 (01:17):
Made us Suppriva Suprema.

Speaker 4 (01:26):
My name is Nick. Yeah, and I'm a cancer. Yeah,
I'm good at music, not much of a dancer.

Speaker 9 (01:35):
Supppreval roll Suprema Supremo Role called.

Speaker 6 (01:43):
My name is Fante, Yeah, and I won't be boring.
Yeah and him had in exchange.

Speaker 2 (01:48):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (01:48):
Now I'm whipping a form ship.

Speaker 2 (01:57):
Suppriva role suprem Subpremo, who call subprim.

Speaker 7 (02:08):
Wow, we did it?

Speaker 6 (02:09):
Like, no, it is a Japanese exactly, I mean it's
technically a foreign but yeah, yeah it ain't Germany.

Speaker 7 (02:19):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (02:20):
I don't wait what what what kind of car you
got Alexis?

Speaker 6 (02:25):
Oh god, yeah yeah it isten't me great gas mileage?

Speaker 10 (02:31):
Toyotas are the best?

Speaker 7 (02:32):
Yeah, man, you right it think?

Speaker 1 (02:34):
Hey, I just got my sign I fixed. I'm still
hanging on what it is the twentieth anniversary of me
getting my drivers like this?

Speaker 3 (02:46):
What's funnier the Quest Love and the Scion?

Speaker 7 (02:49):
Not much? I don't know.

Speaker 1 (02:50):
I don't know the answer, Like, am I driving a
classic car now that I've been driving.

Speaker 7 (02:54):
The sign for twenty years?

Speaker 2 (02:56):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (02:56):
Don't even make that car?

Speaker 7 (02:58):
You don't? Yeah, I don't think. So how do you
get it serviced?

Speaker 1 (03:01):
So the guy that drives me around now he has
a hook up in the heights where they got thing. Yeah,
there's a lot of garages up there in the heights.

Speaker 7 (03:14):
Yeah, and uh yeah, shop shops understood.

Speaker 1 (03:20):
Let's just say that I'm good for at least maybe
nine rounds of kneeding batteries.

Speaker 3 (03:25):
And this is a hell of a way to start
this episode.

Speaker 7 (03:29):
We are live in New York. Well, we're not live.
We're in New York City. We're in person.

Speaker 1 (03:34):
Yeah, good to shout out to take a little for
getting up early this morning.

Speaker 3 (03:40):
And I hear that you say that you did not
get sleep.

Speaker 7 (03:43):
Not really, we didn't.

Speaker 6 (03:44):
We didn't really we had uh yeah, I got in
this morning. Yeah. We had a movie that he scored.
We had that yesterday. That was it Full Frame Documentary,
Full Frame Festival. So that was like all day yesterday,
and then we rolled out six this morning, got here
like eight.

Speaker 7 (04:00):
Okay, it's been up ever since.

Speaker 1 (04:02):
Well since Fonte already assisted us on that, we might
as well introduce our steam guest. And I guess you
can say that this is a special episode because of
course this being five years, yes, twenty twenty five five, right,
so being as though this is like twenty five years

(04:24):
of what okay Player is, I guess we're still trying
to define what okay Player was.

Speaker 3 (04:29):
But if there was ever.

Speaker 1 (04:31):
A moment, I wouldn't mind flexing the very played out
what a time to be alive hashtag man, I would
say that probably Okay Player is one of those moments
in which I think everything that I intended it for
that site to be actually came to fruition, which is
that people connected with each other way above than that

(04:53):
just being a roots website, but people were able to
do that and probably one of the most pioneering moments
that will have defined how it is that we make
music and how we stretch. You know, before Okay Player,
like I lived at a time when you went to
Europe that was Europe, when you did things in the

(05:13):
States that was like now it's colonized and stretched out.
And the fact that you know the storied journey of
how Fontigolo and Nicola met and hooked up one Okay Player,
you know even that this is a dream interview for
us to finally get you guys, because you're such a

(05:33):
YouTube to me, are are the actual physical result of
what happens on the internet when it's a good thing.

Speaker 3 (05:41):
Yes, many different ways.

Speaker 5 (05:44):
I just want to point that I'm not saying.

Speaker 3 (05:52):
Nothing else, so that's a welcome.

Speaker 7 (05:57):
Appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (05:58):
It's weird, I know, the legend of foreign exchange. Hopefully
this will be what I initially intended the Jesus a
Mural episode to.

Speaker 6 (06:09):
Be before today, before it went totally left.

Speaker 1 (06:15):
Maybe if you guys aren't familiar with that legendary episode.
There's a lot of inside baseball talk about what Okay
Player meant as a community. This hopefully will be a
more nuanced, better version.

Speaker 7 (06:27):
Of that episode.

Speaker 1 (06:28):
So Jesus a m though that was definitely that to
me is one of like are the funniest moments, at
least for me, even though it was a lot of inside.

Speaker 3 (06:36):
Baseball Nikolay, what is your first musical memory?

Speaker 4 (06:40):
My first musical memory is hearing Secret Life of Plans
by Stevie Wonder. I credit a lot of my musical
interest and taste to my mother's music collection, and I
have a distinct memory of being I must have been
five or six years old and feeling the braille on
the cover of Secret Life and Plants while taking in

(07:03):
the sounds, and I think, looking back, the synthesizer pioneering
more so than anything else, ecclesiastic and some of those
create like that had a massive influence on me.

Speaker 7 (07:15):
And that must.

Speaker 4 (07:16):
Be one of the first, if not the first, true
musical memories.

Speaker 7 (07:23):
That happened sort of before I consciously.

Speaker 4 (07:26):
Got into music and was interested in music, and like,
shout out to my mom for that.

Speaker 7 (07:30):
How old were you in nineteen seventy nine, I was
five years old. That's so crazy.

Speaker 4 (07:35):
I'm a seventy four shout out to all the seventy
four babies. Yeah, I distinctly remembered that record. Like now,
I would argue with people a lot about songs of
the Kiya Life versus Secret Life of Plants and how
they were kind of back to back right and so
different in so many ways. And for me, I never
had that connection with songs that I did with Secret

(07:58):
Life Plans for the very and that it hit me
so profoundly as a kid, and I have a specific
memory with each of the songs with Black or Kid
We'd comeback as a flower with Tree Race Babblin, Like
I think it really shaped me all right.

Speaker 1 (08:13):
So just to give our listeners just a little backstory,
because I had the opposite experience that you had, even
though you and I had the same shared experience, you know,
like when the classic hip hop records came out and
we discussed it on an OK player, and then it
would be like nine hundred threads of just like that
happened before the Internet and especially in my household in

(08:37):
which there were so many musical experts, a Stevie Wonder
record actually had the power to make someone have like
almost a four hour summit meeting like the day as
songs in the Key of Life came out September of
seventy six. Both songs in the Key of Life and
Spirit by Earth, Wind and Fire came out the same day.

Speaker 3 (08:57):
And that was also the first day of school for me.

Speaker 1 (08:59):
So, like you know, that day was like a major event,
Like we got home early, we sat as a family,
sat in front of the record player to see, like
what the else because it's two years since Fulfilledness first finalite.
So it was such an event in my household that
come three years later in seventy nine, when we had
that same anticipation opening the record and listening and man.

Speaker 3 (09:22):
To watch it with my set, to watch my father's
face during the Earth's creation.

Speaker 1 (09:34):
Yo, I just I've never seen my dad cry until
maybe like nineteen eighty four at a funeral. But the
day I saw the day that music died for my dad,
and it was such a heartbreaking, like he just looked
at the floor like I've lost.

Speaker 7 (09:52):
Hopeing to humanity.

Speaker 1 (09:55):
But for me, any albums that were rejected by like
my dad's band or then I would wind up inheriting.
And so I inherited that record and so just like you,
that was my dark side of the Moon, like, yeah,
mainly because it's like, oh, it's on my own and
I would listened to it in the headphones and yeah, imagine.

Speaker 4 (10:13):
And I loved everything about it. I loved the photo
of Stevie in the booklet. I love the fact that
there were Japanese lyrics. I didn't know what that meant
at the time, And then I think I asked my mother,
like what is this and the lime green cover or
if I have to describe it, maybe almost pistel like
it was. So it wasn't just the music, It was

(10:34):
the totality of that record, and it wouldn't have happened
on it was vinyl.

Speaker 7 (10:39):
It was just a big, beautiful.

Speaker 1 (10:41):
The one time I realized that there was such a
major pushback on that record, like besides, I would dismiss
my dad's thing, like him shit talking about Stevie lost it.

Speaker 7 (10:50):
I'm so disappointed. Was like when I started going back.

Speaker 1 (10:53):
To read reviews and it got a lead review and
Rolling Stone and they just they just talent. It's almost
in a way, like I don't know if I should
be this honest about it.

Speaker 3 (11:07):
When Glover's Camp got a one point nine and.

Speaker 1 (11:10):
Pitchfork, oh okay, there was an energy shift between he
and I and almost felt like that devastated him so
much to know that I knew about because I instantly
hit him like, yeah, man, don't.

Speaker 7 (11:21):
Like it, right, but I certainly have a view.

Speaker 1 (11:27):
But just until like maybe three years ago, I truly
let the opinions of a critic go okay, you know,
I didn't go back to look at the movie like
none of that stuff, like I'm just I now make
art because like I want to make beautiful art and
not like, oh.

Speaker 7 (11:41):
This will keep our rating high or whatever.

Speaker 1 (11:43):
But I didn't realize how much of a beating he
took for that record.

Speaker 4 (11:49):
Me neither, and in fact, like I weighed everything that
I heard by Stevie after that. I compared it too
secret life and it didn't always live up to me.
But because of like and I think, like we could
talk about this later, but like my love for synthesizer pioneering,
what what Stevie was doing with the with the c

(12:10):
S eighty on that record, Like I think it's looking back,
it's clear why the larger public didn't really get it,
but for the nerds, if you will, like it checked
all the boxes because he was going further, and but
I still think it had like come back as a
flower is up there for me, Flowers for me, that

(12:31):
black work.

Speaker 6 (12:32):
That's the only record I can think of that Stevie
singing falsetto win. I can't think of no other song
that's good. He's not right, Yeah, he's not right. Yeah,
I've never heard him sing falsetto on nothing Nose.

Speaker 4 (12:43):
So when I when I heard songs after that, I
was like, yeah, it's cool.

Speaker 3 (12:47):
You discovered songs proactively.

Speaker 7 (12:49):
Yeah, anything like.

Speaker 4 (12:50):
I think the second thing I heard by Stevie was
the musical of the Concoration that had original and it
had like living for the City. I think it was like,
all right, this is I'm hearing more of what I like.
But like everything that I've heard after, and it's largely
probably because of the warmth of the memories involved with it,

(13:13):
everything thereafter didn't quite have the same magic for me.

Speaker 1 (13:16):
So now that I hear this, it makes even more sense.
At you guys that man, the day you guys covered
he if she breaks your heart to me, like, I
still have a dream that somehow if the masters of

(13:36):
the Jungle Jingle soundtrack bro get free. I have such
a dream of just hearing that same I've never heard
an album which song structure. I like it a lot,
but if he changed the instrumentation on it like that,
he could have pulled the winehouse. But I don't know
if like Okay, if he did a fulfillment first menalitey

(13:59):
or whatever like sonically made it sound like that would
have had the same impact. But hearing you guys like
update his sound but still keep ah Man.

Speaker 7 (14:09):
This is a beautiful song.

Speaker 6 (14:10):
Man, I just thought it needed to be updated, like,
but it's a great record.

Speaker 7 (14:13):
I love that song.

Speaker 1 (14:14):
So let me ask for you guys the point where
I realized that Okay player was just bigger than a
website for some acts to post announcements on.

Speaker 3 (14:25):
You also just have to sift through.

Speaker 1 (14:30):
The many personalities, because you guys are on a constant
blind date. Like there are many people to whom I've
had interactions with that you know you can't see what
they look like or you don't you know, I don't
know what trolling is or none of that stuff. But
you guys have to find each other because even in
my mind, even though you are definitely a charter member,

(14:51):
I do have at least in my social circle. I
have a like an inner circle like around one, around two,
and you always around three person like even though we
talked a lot, not to the level of no for sure.

Speaker 7 (15:04):
So how did you two meet?

Speaker 10 (15:06):
Yeah, it was I think this was back in like
it was two thousand and what two.

Speaker 4 (15:09):
Yeah, I think a one one sort of found each
other in the same in.

Speaker 6 (15:14):
The same type of jazz. So with him, like, and
I didn't know anything about this guy.

Speaker 7 (15:19):
I didn't know. We would even joke with the.

Speaker 10 (15:22):
Crew like it was Nikola is the girl the girl.

Speaker 7 (15:25):
Like we you know, it was just a name on
the screen.

Speaker 6 (15:27):
We had no idea and so but I think I
feel like I remember it was a radiohead topic and
and he jumped in the thread. But I just kept
seeing him in threads, and I would notice that he
had a lot of the same taste that I did,
Like we liked a lot of the same shit.

Speaker 10 (15:41):
And so I was like, okay, I kind of fucked
with him.

Speaker 6 (15:43):
And so then one day he just came and was like, Yo,
this is a new track by me, and I'm like okay,
And so I listened and I was like, holy shit,
this is amazing. And I reached out and I was like, hey, man,
would you mind if I did something of this? You know,
we got mczo here like what you know? He was like, nah, man,
go for it and so famous d M.

Speaker 7 (16:04):
Yeah, yeah, hit.

Speaker 6 (16:07):
And so the first time we did the first record
was I think was it lighted up?

Speaker 3 (16:11):
Was that the first Yeah, that was the very first
one lighted up?

Speaker 7 (16:13):
And Nick's groove was a two for that we did.

Speaker 4 (16:16):
And if I may rewind, like I think for me,
I think I might have a unique perspective on Okay
Player as a European.

Speaker 3 (16:24):
Yes, I want to know Cony like it.

Speaker 4 (16:27):
Was sort of finding connection with this completely different universe
like I saw you.

Speaker 7 (16:36):
Okay.

Speaker 4 (16:36):
I bought Voodoo in two thousand and two. It must
have been in April, right, something like that.

Speaker 7 (16:41):
It came out in January.

Speaker 4 (16:42):
Okay, Well I may have been late, but either way,
like I was familiar with the Roots, but I hadn't
really ever heard full albums. I was familiar with Common,
but Voodoo was Voodoo brought me to Okay Player because
I looked at the booklet and it said okay Player
and I had no idea. So you brought me to
Okay Player. That summer I saw you guys twice on

(17:04):
the Voodoo tour, once in the Hague for the North
Sea Jezz Festival's and once in Belgium, which was an
open air daytime show. Didn't Third Base open up for us,
I don't remember that. I know Slum Village open for
y'all in Belgium.

Speaker 7 (17:16):
It wasn't with JD, but it was.

Speaker 4 (17:19):
But it was a religious experience in many ways in Belgium,
specifically because it was during the daytime, so it was
a very It hit very directly, and I remember you
guys hitting send it on and I was crying, like
I'm not saying that just to blow smoke.

Speaker 7 (17:32):
It was that.

Speaker 4 (17:34):
And so like two thousand is when I learned about
Okay player. But then it took me a while to
get to the boards because that was sort of the
second layer, you know what I mean. And it took
me a while to get to the boards, and then
it took me a while to go from lurking to posting.
I signed up, I got to use your name at
that point, I was going under Nicolay, which is my
first name. I have three I was baptized, I have

(17:57):
three first names. And it seemed like the most international
sounding one, So I registered that knew that Nicola Music
user name.

Speaker 7 (18:07):
What if they call you back home?

Speaker 10 (18:09):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (18:11):
Well yeah no, Matthias is like what I kind of
would the person behind the you know screen, I guess
the man behind the curtain. But so it took me,
I think a year maybe to go from discovering the
site to realizing that there was the lesson, particularly like
I've never been on any of the other like I
was specifically like I didn't really do General.

Speaker 7 (18:32):
I didn't really do so the lesson.

Speaker 1 (18:34):
So he's basically saying that to our listeners out there,
we would have boards, and the boards was like a
playground sub section or yeah, like a nightclub.

Speaker 6 (18:42):
And then the lesson for the snobs, the music snobs.

Speaker 1 (18:46):
I was on the lesson, Yeah, more than I was
supposed to be on like the General General the okay artist.

Speaker 7 (18:53):
Like nobody went okayist.

Speaker 3 (18:57):
Newbies would go there like you know, is this really you?

Speaker 7 (18:59):
And that sort of thing.

Speaker 3 (19:00):
But yeah, people either went.

Speaker 1 (19:01):
To General when they were trying to get something yeah yeah,
man right, And the lessons were for like the dweeps.

Speaker 4 (19:11):
And so for me, like just in Europe, I didn't
have connection with a lot of people that liked the
music that I liked for a variety of reasons. And
I'm not really sure why. You earlier asked like, what
was my first interaction with hip hop? And it was
actually Three Feet High and Rising eighty nine. I guess yeah,
and that like I was, I was kind of a

(19:32):
metal head before that time, like ironically, but something about
sampling really appealed to me. And so I heard three
Feet Rising and then I started getting into you know,
the first Tribe album and stuff like that. So by
the time, like fast forward ten years, I'm full on
and so I didn't have a lot of people around me.

Speaker 1 (19:52):
Can I ask something, yeah, yeah, yeah, and you can
educate our viewers. Okay, So of course now because everything
is colonized, you know, if Drake is to release a song,
we're all going to stay at the same time. Can
you explain what the process is like before the internet
and how it trickled down and got to you.

Speaker 7 (20:10):
So in ninety the early.

Speaker 4 (20:14):
Nineties to maybe mid nineties, we started getting Yo MTV
reps on the European MTV and that is when so
it was I want to say a nightly and then
on Saturday they had the Fab five Freddy Hours or whatever, right,
and so I just started watching that and so anything
like it wasn't like we had a lot of that

(20:36):
on the radio. There was a hip hop show that
every week would play like, you know, I remember hearing
Come Clean for the first time, Jay Ruin, you know,
like ice Cube and stuff like that, but it was
jo MTV reps and then seeing everything like the leaders
of the news school episodes, the all like I was
taking all of that in.

Speaker 7 (20:57):
Yeah right, yeah right, what you say.

Speaker 4 (21:02):
Yeah, So it was like to TV, I guess and
and just I don't know, I ate all that up.
But at the same time, I was kind of like
I had a best friend in high school was also
very like his favorite stuff was duck Down, Like he
was super into like UGK and all that stuff. And
so together he and I went to hip hop shows
in Amsterdam at the Paradiso, saw like stuff like Onyx

(21:26):
and what. We went to all of the shit that
we could find stuff my bad really so yeah, so okay,
Player for me was literally a direct connection to the
culture that I really really was interested in.

Speaker 1 (21:46):
This is the thing I've had conversations with people the
nineteen eighties generation that got hip hop, like to hear
Mooney Love describe that. She can hear her voice on
those Public Enemy interludes on it Nation of millions, you know,
like the the interstitials of which they're doing the top
of the Fresh what are the who's the pump masterflex

(22:08):
of the UK? West Woods Wes Yeah, Tim Westwood Show.
Like if you listen to that funky drummer loop, somebody
anybody scream here the girls scream.

Speaker 7 (22:17):
Himoney you love?

Speaker 1 (22:19):
That's her voice, like so to hear an eighties generation
describe that. But we can all attest, especially Fonte and I,
that there's a different type of hip hop fan like
post ninety four but post ninety five that you fall under.
And the thing is that I noticed and a lot
of artists, especially now Jay, were the damage of had

(22:44):
to move to Europe just to make a living.

Speaker 3 (22:46):
So yeah, lives there now?

Speaker 1 (22:48):
Oh really because that's like yeah, but it's it's a
lot of acts that.

Speaker 7 (22:52):
Are doing that.

Speaker 1 (22:53):
At any point, did you realize, like really the essence
of the hip hop that you that attracted you, the
perceived on the ground thing. Did you have any clue
whatsoever that that that's really a culture that is tailored
for Europe, like there was no place in the United
States in which like the Roots could sell out the

(23:14):
Parisian version of Massive Square Garden La Zenith.

Speaker 7 (23:18):
Yeah you know what I'm saying. Yeah, yeah, where prints
played like a bunch of times.

Speaker 3 (23:21):
Yeah, you know, not at home.

Speaker 7 (23:22):
We can't do that right.

Speaker 1 (23:25):
At any point, did you realize that that level of
hip hop like that was the true home of it
or did you still think of it as an American
thing like I looked at it. What did you think
we were doing in America at the time.

Speaker 7 (23:34):
I didn't pick up on that, Like I didn't.

Speaker 4 (23:36):
I wasn't raised on you know, the classic run DMC
stuff or something like that. I had no clue like I,
Like you said, I came on board in the early nineties,
but my true fandom was like ninety five, ninety six
all the way up to two thousand, when when I
bought like stuff like like water for chocolate, which was
a and I don't think I realized that if in fact,

(24:00):
I felt kind of isolated over there, specifically musically, because
what I liked was in my group of people perceived
as American, Okay, not even my sound. When I first
started making music. A lot of people over there felt
it was kind of slick and a little American, and

(24:20):
I didn't realize at all later like, now, what you're
saying makes perfect sense, But for me at the time,
it was an American thing, and it I think subconsciously
realized that if I wanted to make music like that,
I needed to connect with Americans.

Speaker 7 (24:38):
That's weird.

Speaker 1 (24:39):
So the slur word over there is it sounds America,
whereas that same type of music here, I think they
would just say, like, oh, that's soft, you know.

Speaker 3 (24:46):
Yes, smooth, emotional. Yeah yeah.

Speaker 7 (24:49):
Over there, like.

Speaker 4 (24:50):
The type of hip hop that exists there natively is
more abstract, you know, it's not necessarily purely musical per se,
but it's very aggressive and lot of it is local
language based.

Speaker 1 (25:02):
At this point, who was the biggest local artist that
had the biggest poll over.

Speaker 7 (25:06):
There, That's a great question.

Speaker 4 (25:08):
I didn't really listen to any other because, like I,
you know, a lot of them were Dutch language artists,
and I never thought that sounded very good and that
was probably a little snobbish of me, but I really liked.

Speaker 3 (25:21):
Was everyone trying to be like DJ Premiere or.

Speaker 4 (25:23):
Like even even more abstract, just not really any people,
maybe like Company Flow or.

Speaker 3 (25:31):
Some stuff like real Deaf Jus.

Speaker 4 (25:34):
Not definitely not what I did. Definitely not with like
chord progressions or like baselines that fit the key or.

Speaker 7 (25:43):
Let me let me, let me just let me clean
it up.

Speaker 1 (25:46):
I'm a massive fan like cannibal Ox, like the first generation.

Speaker 7 (25:49):
I didn't mean that as I meant that more style.
There's always one troll that's going to be like no, no, no.
I definitely didn't mean that.

Speaker 1 (25:57):
I don't want to Detroit singer effect.

Speaker 7 (26:04):
To myself.

Speaker 4 (26:06):
Now, I guess I mean it more as a style
that is more marked by a certain level of expression
versus like again, like when I heard like Water for
Chocolate like production Wise, or when I first heard Fantastic
Volume two, or even when I later heard Things Fall Apart,
which was a little bit later.

Speaker 7 (26:25):
For me, or Voodoo.

Speaker 4 (26:27):
Those were the albums that made me realize like, Okay,
so you can make hip hop and make it beautiful
versus you have to make hip hop that is aggressive.
Not that there wasn't you know what I'm saying, but
like it was for me a realization because when I
first came into contact with hip hop I had a
very naive understanding of like, there's a guy with turntables

(26:47):
who is making the beats, for instance, Tribe Cold Quest.
That's how I sort of saw it. You know, you
have it's making the beats with the vinyl. And it
wasn't until later that I not, like, Okay, there's actually
people doing this that are more musical inclined. And so

(27:08):
that was for me sort of like really kind of
the eye opener of like, Okay, I understand now that
there's something that I could contribute to this music.

Speaker 1 (27:22):
This is real important for me to hear that, because
there's part of me that has this negative slash glass
half empty view of how the community sees the music.
And for the most part, I always felt like whatever
nariety that we got, we were only chosen because we

(27:46):
weren't gangster rap. Like the amount of times that someone
will performably come up to me backstage to differentiate themselves
like yo, man, like I like y'all because you know,
y'all don't be killing bitches, y'all don't be so with
drugs like and y'all don't care about success, you don't
care about getting paid.

Speaker 7 (28:07):
Definitely wrong. So again the idea. And that's the thing.

Speaker 1 (28:10):
I know in their mind they're thinking like, wow, they're
trying to give me a quotable that I remember, like yeah,
that one fan and Boise Idaho that just like me
and looks right, And really I only walk away thinking like, man,
they just they hate Snoop Doggie Dogs, so they only
like us because we're the opposite of that, which is

(28:32):
really not saying you like, So this is like one
of the rare times in which like I felt chosen. Yeah, yes,
I know that for everyone to be on OK player.

Speaker 7 (28:43):
But then.

Speaker 3 (28:45):
Because of just you know, an artist being.

Speaker 7 (28:48):
Over analytical and.

Speaker 1 (28:51):
Self deprecating for me, like the fact that I allow
people just slander us and talk shit over there more
or less about me just feeling to justify like my
non deservedness. But I will say that this is a
really good time for me to hear that, oh, someone
actually just liked the music and gravitated towards.

Speaker 4 (29:12):
Not only that, but it it made me feel like
I had something to contribute, Like I wasn't a DJ.
I've never really truly done vinyl. I'm an instrument guy.
I started out playing guitar, bass, drums, some keyboards, and
so I had always played in bands. I didn't have
a beat making background in that sense. But what I

(29:32):
heard in those records, y'all's records, the common was musical
layers on top of drums. If I had to just
put it very basic, that told me that there was
a place for a musical approach to production. To me,
like it wasn't just about two turntables, but like added keyboards,

(29:57):
added guitars, added like basically whatever y'all I would like,
you know, road like obviously the roads ear candy. That
made me think like okay, wow, like I can actually
probably contribute something to this.

Speaker 3 (30:10):
But did you realize that?

Speaker 1 (30:12):
Because the thing is is that at least back then
if I'm going to Europe the same way that you
got to fill up your gas tank like I know
in Prime Roots time in ninety five, ninety six, in
two thousand and one, two thousand and two, that I'm
going to go bend shopping with Dyles Peterson or do.

Speaker 3 (30:33):
A lot of I'm almost certain I still.

Speaker 7 (30:35):
Believe to this day I had.

Speaker 1 (30:37):
I did like two thousand dollars worth of record shopping
in Amsterdam, and I think the records are still in
their basement because.

Speaker 7 (30:44):
I forgot to nail at home.

Speaker 1 (30:47):
But like I would have to go to Europe and
to these these whatever, the cosmopolitan European, westernized European cities
to get the music that's going to help me make
the music that's crazy that you think is coming from America,
but really like it's coming from you. It is those
obscure bands from Holland or the frog rock groupers. So

(31:10):
at any point is it registering to you that you're
actually kind of at an advantage where you live in
the place where a lot of taste makers, the Giles
Peterson's of the world, are exposing you all to music
that otherwise only very few people are doing it in
the United States right now.

Speaker 7 (31:27):
I think it's a great question.

Speaker 4 (31:30):
Actually I don't think to that extent, But like there
were a lot of Europeans trends of music at that
time happening that I think I was influenced by that
gave me a leg up over here, like for Hero
in UK, like jazz and Nova in Germany, like some
of the more down tempo stuff in France. So when

(31:53):
when I put my music out to the world in
the States, people said it had a European feel, and
you know, again ironically, back home, people were saying that
stuff sounds American.

Speaker 7 (32:04):
I had no idea.

Speaker 4 (32:05):
I think I perceived all of this music as as
purely American, and I don't think I had this sophistication
of knowledge at the time to realize that it was
kind of a full circle that's really places where.

Speaker 7 (32:19):
Yeah, no, not at all, not at all.

Speaker 1 (32:21):
So did you think like we were like on America,
having like, you know, poetry slammed me like everything that you.

Speaker 7 (32:28):
Talk about.

Speaker 1 (32:31):
Journals on the capreia, Like did you think like we
were just like, you know, cutting up coconuts?

Speaker 4 (32:36):
And I don't think it was erratic, Sam, but I
definitely heard I think maybe it was because of the
perception of the Roots as a band. I heard something
that was not a guy on a beat machine. I
heard a more richer kind of sound that made me

(32:59):
think like a lot of it was played by instruments.
And again the instruments is what appealed to me because
I didn't know how to make a beat, but I
knew how to play a bass guitar, you know what
I mean?

Speaker 7 (33:09):
Like, how far were you from Amsterdam? So I grew
up in Utrecht, which is.

Speaker 4 (33:13):
Half an hour where the you would call it a
suburb of which is Atrat used to be. It's a
thousands years old city that used to be a Roman outpost.

Speaker 1 (33:24):
But it and that's where the North Sea Jazz festivals hill,
right or No, that was in the Hague and now
I think nowadays it's in Rotterdam.

Speaker 4 (33:31):
They moved it from the Hague to Rotterdam. But I
went to school in Amsterdam because that was the thing
that you did. Like when I finished high school, I
went to school in Amsterdam, largely because I didn't know
what to do. So I started musicology at the University
of Amsterdam and I started going to the Paradiso, which
is a venue you would be familiar with. Yeah, that

(33:52):
was you know, we got a lot of great Like
I remember seeing Wu Tang for the first time they
were in Holland and.

Speaker 1 (33:58):
Asked a question, Yeah, okay, as a Holland resident, how
frustrating was it for you?

Speaker 7 (34:06):
Because here's the thing.

Speaker 1 (34:08):
Now it's twenty twenty four, so kind of perception and
the relationship with cannabis and weed. Oh man, now it's
like it's it's it's getting nationalized and slowly but surely
I think right now Germany's voting to see they'll legalize
it totally.

Speaker 3 (34:26):
So you know, the world's open up the rains.

Speaker 1 (34:28):
But like of course in the late nineteen nineties, early
two thousand and people's minds like the whole pulp fiction
thing that the glorious story of, like you gotta go
to only in Amsterdam and Holland, Yeah, can you get
fucked up and not get fucked rusted?

Speaker 7 (34:46):
Right? It was great?

Speaker 1 (34:47):
And so as a result, like the amount of shows
that I saw, just the amount of artists, because a
lot of artists when they start there, you were being toured,
they would make Amsterdam the hub. First, go there a
few days earlier and go to all these coffee shops
and the right and so you know, I do know

(35:11):
in my mind a lot of the most adventurous roots
shows were in Amsterdam.

Speaker 11 (35:18):
And what's an adventurous root shows ount like it's where
they might hit four or five coffee shops before we
get on stage.

Speaker 1 (35:29):
So even though the muscle memory is strong, like we've
the most closest to freestyle shows where it's just like
it's a fish show that I wasn't taking so at
least like I could. It was just harder to control
the guys as a traffic cop. Oh I was a
designated driver, right because you know, Tarik might forget the

(35:51):
third verse to mel my Man and then we gotta
you know. But I also feel as though those those
shows excited me because I didn't know what to expect.
So basically, I think I just revealed to the world
that what you already knew is like I'm tightly wound,
and I rehearse no no, no no, no no no,
I'm tightly wound, just in terms of like my spontanees

(36:13):
rehearsed as a band, as a band leader. And so
I always wonder if people in the audience get frustrated
looking at us, like dumb Americans they always get fucked
up before they come on stage and now they're falling
all over and forget their lyrics. Like I can confirm that, Like,
have you seen a good hip hop show in Holland

(36:35):
where nobody was so fucked up they couldn't perform?

Speaker 7 (36:38):
Yes, I've seen both.

Speaker 4 (36:39):
So I've seen like Lords of the Underground CIRCA Funky Child, amazing,
amazing show. They were focused, they were focused, sounded incredible,
like parodies, as you know, is an old church. Yeah,
sound can be very finicky there, but it was amazing.
But I'm not afraid to relate this anecdote. The first

(37:01):
time came to them, Joe apparently like, you know how
Paradiso has the dressing rooms in the basement, Yes, you
go up the.

Speaker 3 (37:10):
Stairs to the stay the balcony.

Speaker 4 (37:12):
Yes, And and so Jizza apparently was so high that
he wouldn't come out of the dressing room, and they
brought the microphone down using the stairs.

Speaker 7 (37:24):
So there were a lot of shows where you could
tell like it was impacted.

Speaker 3 (37:28):
So you just expected.

Speaker 4 (37:31):
And the thing for people in Amsterdam is like it
is legal, so a lot of people don't really bother
to partake because you know how that kind of becomes
a thing of like, ah whatever. So we were not
we you know, I've seen both. I've seen incredible hip
hop shows where it seemed like and and maybe they
were still but like but but largely we loved the

(37:54):
record so much that you wanted to get some of that.
You wanted to get what you loved about the record.
And I remember really really great show like Onyx was incredible.
Onyx opened up for run DMC because they were being
managey at the time and it was down with the
and that was an incredible show. Yeah, obviously Cyprus Hill

(38:16):
worked out really well.

Speaker 7 (38:17):
In answer them, because.

Speaker 3 (38:20):
You're saying that we, like.

Speaker 1 (38:22):
I enjoyed many of our shows over there, but I
will also acknowledge in the same with LA, like all
of our LA shows are so high pressurized because you
knows in the crowd while I'm black, it's watching you
over there, so you're like going on out or showing off,
and it's not like the shows that I wish you

(38:42):
guys could see, like one of them nondescript shows that
we did in Italy or in France that we didn't
care about and we just retired and went on state,
Like those shows are the best route shows that we'll
never get seen. But I always wondered if you guys
you're getting think about it going another question I have

(39:07):
because the thing is, and this is for the both
of you to me, I'm thinking, like I had such
a flag planning moment with like, yeah, this this thing
called the super Information Highway and the Internet, like I'm
bringing a real life magazine or the way that Rozelle
described it He's like, yo, man, you just open up

(39:27):
your own mall and you're selling stories to everybody to
come and do their thing. And that's what okay player is.
So I thought that's as far as I could take it.
So the day that's someone and they explained to me
like I was a sixty five year older, He's like, no,
you don't understand. Like they made their music on computer.
I was like, wait, you can make a studio like

(39:48):
it sounds like I came from battery studios, like a
real song like that. So the way that people were
explaining to me that you can now make an entire
album on your computer and check this out of here.
You can email it somebody and they could add vocals,
And I was trying to like the way that somebody
was explaining to me what it was like, why it
was such a big deal that this pairing was happening.

(40:11):
It was one of them things where I didn't know
what fruity loop even though like I heard you guys
mentioned we lose fruity loops. I've never to this day
seen fruity loops or like I'm also the guy's just
a shame to admit I make records in the old way.

Speaker 3 (40:25):
Hey man, Steve is very cl Steven is smiling right now.

Speaker 5 (40:27):
I've never saw fruity loops either. I really haven't.

Speaker 7 (40:31):
Well, I know that.

Speaker 1 (40:31):
I'm just like you're very glad that I'm very with
my pretty much like I don't know that.

Speaker 3 (40:37):
I think my whole record was the same age.

Speaker 1 (40:40):
Yet, So at what point did you guys decide to like, Okay,
this worked out? Like why don't we make something of this?
Because I would have never even if you did that, Like,
can I rhyme over this?

Speaker 3 (40:52):
You never met each other? So how did you know
this would work?

Speaker 7 (40:55):
Man?

Speaker 6 (40:56):
It could be music. It was just the music. It
was just a belief in the music. I didn't Again,
I didn't know him. I didn't know nothing about him,
you know. And so finally, you know, we you know,
we would just use instant messenger. And at the time
we made Connected, I didn't even have a computer of
my own. So all that whole how you making your vocals?

(41:17):
So how I was doing my vocals? Back back then?
We had a studio, I mean, we had our studio.
We were recording chop shop, we were making all the
LB records. But I didn't have a personal computer.

Speaker 10 (41:27):
In my crib. So I would go to the chop
shop do my vocals.

Speaker 6 (41:31):
And then I would either I would mix down the
MP three and I would go to my homeboys crib,
my man MC. I would use his computer, my man Meetian.
He had a pass to the computer lab at NC State,
and so he would let us all kind of we

(41:51):
would be on some bootleg shit like using his credentials
to get into the computer lab at NC State, and
I would like log on and be like, yo, bro,
I just did this, and I would like, you know,
get on im.

Speaker 7 (42:02):
AIM.

Speaker 3 (42:02):
I oul send it to him. How long would it
take to email files back?

Speaker 6 (42:06):
It wasn't bad, So it wasn't email because this again,
this is prior to like Gmail or any of that shit.

Speaker 7 (42:11):
Sens face, none of that. This is AIM.

Speaker 6 (42:13):
This is AIM instant messenger and you just mail file.

Speaker 4 (42:20):
Yeah, and I think we never shared wave files because
that wasn't possible.

Speaker 7 (42:26):
You would.

Speaker 4 (42:27):
He would send me an MP three and then when
we were like, okay, this is really it, like he
actually snail mailed me some cd some CDRs so that.

Speaker 7 (42:36):
I waved on it.

Speaker 1 (42:37):
Yeah, and you're doing this straight to MP three. Yeah,
I'm doing this. I mean's not sending like the drum
track and keyboard tracking. Oh no, no, this is just
straight two track. So how do you line up?

Speaker 7 (42:47):
Like? Are you lining stuff Jimmy Jam style?

Speaker 1 (42:49):
Like Jimmy Jam revealed that for at least eighty to
ninety percent, they never used sympty at all, right, and
he would just blend.

Speaker 3 (42:58):
The vocals like when they would do a remix or something.
Are you essentially just so.

Speaker 7 (43:02):
Basically I had to beat.

Speaker 4 (43:04):
I had the track, and then Fante would send me
a ref like he would do the vocals and he
would mail me a ref and then I would essentially
line them up using the ref. So I'd be like, okay,
this is my session.

Speaker 7 (43:17):
This is what I would literally.

Speaker 4 (43:23):
And then normally it would be like no, I push
it back for like a little you know, give it
like it was sort of like a trial and error
and when it sounded right, you kind of knew like, okay,
it sits right, but it was there was no process.

Speaker 1 (43:35):
You would tell them sometimes like nudge the drums back
with vocals.

Speaker 6 (43:39):
I would the track out, you know, I would let
him do that, but my vocals. You dialitize your vocals
to absolutely every time this day, like to this day.

Speaker 7 (43:50):
Nudge to the right. Everything's for for him to the
right in the whole world, all the time. Everything.

Speaker 3 (43:55):
Yeah, man, that's.

Speaker 7 (44:00):
Know is four frames the right.

Speaker 3 (44:01):
Everybody is four frames the RCT.

Speaker 7 (44:02):
Yeah, I gotta admit though, no.

Speaker 1 (44:05):
But but the thing is is that I thought you
were on some steph Curry shooting from half court like
some of these vocals, you know, the with thieve behind this,
And I was.

Speaker 3 (44:19):
Like, yo, yeah, so magular that.

Speaker 4 (44:24):
In many ways he is, but like it was still
we would exaggerate it.

Speaker 6 (44:28):
I mean, I you know, naturally I would kind of
be you know on it, but but I would always like,
kind of nudget it look to the right. But that
was how we did the first album. So he was
he was in the Netherlands and I was in Durham
and so little Brother had a show at Parody. So
this was what they didn't get high. Yeah, we didn't

(44:48):
get high, save that we came at Queens Day. I
was very high, but we did.

Speaker 2 (44:54):
Uh.

Speaker 7 (44:55):
It was like three That was four four April four.

Speaker 6 (45:00):
That was our first time ever meeting each other face
to face. We came over and by that time we
had connected damn near done.

Speaker 7 (45:06):
You know, good yeah, we had it pretty much.

Speaker 1 (45:09):
So what was the first meeting like, because I also
feel like the reflection of the music, there has to
be some sort of social camaraderie.

Speaker 7 (45:19):
Absolutely.

Speaker 6 (45:19):
Yeah, no, man, listen, bro, if you can you know,
if you have the level of trust to send your
raw vocals to somebody, I mean, that's you know, that's
a bond that you know, you know, just regardless of
them person not being in your physical space. That's just
a level of intimacy and trust that it supersedes, you know,

(45:42):
any kind of physical or any kind of whatever, you know,
because you're just you're essentially like putting yourself out there
and you send it to this guy that you don't know,
and it's like, hey, man, I trust you with this.

Speaker 3 (45:52):
Make it happen, you know what I mean.

Speaker 6 (45:54):
And so when we met each other face to face
that first time, it was just like, oh right, what
up this Nick?

Speaker 7 (45:58):
Okay? Cool? It was like almost like yeah, I saw
you yesterday, but I.

Speaker 6 (46:02):
Hadn't, yeah, because because we had literally been working on
this album like for months and months, and at that time,
you know, that was when LB we were touring heavy,
so it was really oh, we just lost the contact.

Speaker 3 (46:14):
Oh, yeah, I was what.

Speaker 7 (46:19):
I got.

Speaker 3 (46:19):
I got it. I got it right, you know, like
Kevin Nel.

Speaker 7 (46:26):
Look look at man.

Speaker 6 (46:30):
So we so I was at the mercy of LB's
touring schedule. So that first album Connected it took a
long time to get done, well longer in a long
time back then, but because it was just kind of
all right, I get a couple of songs done, then
we go on tour for six weeks whatever.

Speaker 7 (46:43):
Come back. How long did it take to make Connect?
We started in two.

Speaker 4 (46:47):
We started at the beginning too, and we were done
at the end of yeah, yeah, because right then we
had that whole.

Speaker 6 (46:58):
Connected leak okay, player off places of course, which wait,
the lesson the less.

Speaker 1 (47:06):
But the thing is, how like I'm assuming the entire
creations under your yeah, like possessions.

Speaker 6 (47:13):
Yeah, but I mean it was at that time, I
mean it was just so loose. I mean, so like
we would record, but then at the end of the session,
whoever was engineering the session, if it was Name or
if it.

Speaker 10 (47:22):
Was Crisis or whoever, like all right, who want to copy?

Speaker 6 (47:25):
And we didn't think anything. It's like, yeah, it's just
getting around. Yeah, it was just getting around. So I'm
on to a high road and I see like, oh,
oh ship is out this even before Lime Wire, I
don't even know.

Speaker 7 (47:38):
I don't even know how will people get it?

Speaker 6 (47:42):
It was so see so I'm like, damn, the album leaked,
and you know, in my mind, I'm thinking like that
Dead in the Water thought it was we always it
was like damn. But we saw the response and it
was like, well, damn, people really fuck with this. So
it really was kind of a it was validation a
lot of ways after, you know, it affirmed what we

(48:03):
kind of believed that we had. And so when I
came back from tour, we did a couple extra bonus tracks.
It was like, all right, it leaked, but let's do
a couple extra joints. And bb came and we did
the deal with them that was like yeah, we four.

Speaker 4 (48:18):
I mean, yeah, well I think if I remember we
had to deal when it leaked, I remember thinking like,
is this going to be the end of our journey? Like,
like do they will the label still mess with us?
And it was one of those leaks where the response
was greater than the loss of not being new, and
so it worked out. But at the time we were

(48:41):
kind of devastated by it because like, but leaks at
the time were very normal, like jay Z would leak
and like you know, like there it was that time
of like when people started carrying.

Speaker 7 (48:51):
CDs out of the plan under their belts and shit.

Speaker 3 (48:54):
So it also means that there is like excitement because there's.

Speaker 6 (48:58):
Some people that just it's a million and I'll never hear,
I'll never download.

Speaker 7 (49:03):
I think at the end of the day we.

Speaker 8 (49:04):
Took it this track, I was gonna ask just with
the track making, like you were, you know, talking about
roads and guitars and stuff like what comes first for you.
I'm always interested in when people are making beats, is
it is it rhythm heavy or is it.

Speaker 4 (49:18):
I think I think the musical idea comes first, and
that might be a chord progression, that might be a sample,
that might be a bassline, But that's what I built
around and drums under, if that makes sense. At the time,
it was a combination. I really was interned as Samply,
but I didn't have I didn't have an NPC, I

(49:41):
didn't have I had a computer and had a keyboard
and a bass guitar, and I used a tracker, which
is there was a tracking scene at the time.

Speaker 7 (49:49):
Yo, my plug. Yeah, he showed me that ship.

Speaker 6 (49:54):
Dude, it looked like he was about to launch a
fucking missile. I'm like, dog, what is this? Like that
was when I really saw like the way his brain
works is just different, because it's not my plug is
a program and I'm not like the super techy guy.
But like, we recorded that first album in cool Letted Pro,
which is now Adobe Audition, but it was cool Letted.

Speaker 3 (50:14):
That was what we did all the vocals in.

Speaker 6 (50:15):
And it's just a basic just a basic daw So
it's you know, it's side to side.

Speaker 3 (50:20):
My plug is vertical.

Speaker 7 (50:22):
So he matrix.

Speaker 6 (50:26):
On the beat and he just starts see all this
ship flying. I was like, bro, what the fuck is that?
And but that's what he made beats on and I
was like, yeah he.

Speaker 3 (50:34):
Did, So is this okay?

Speaker 1 (50:36):
True to the legend of other beat bankers that I know,
what was the standard at the time and what Like
when I found out that Joe Ron Bombay was making
these beats on Sony Acid, like he's really cheap, like
my first Sony kind of yeah, what were you using?

Speaker 4 (50:54):
I didn't know what the standard was and my brother,
my younger brother, had introduced me to trackers, which is
essentially a machine code kind of thing where you can
load little wave files in and trigger them by using
certain codes. And so it started with you have four tracks,

(51:15):
and then they like, all of a sudden, it was
a tracks. I think by the time I started working
with them, it was like a tracks and at some
point you had sixteen tracks of having sounds together.

Speaker 3 (51:26):
See doing a song like Daykeeper with this sort of
a keeper.

Speaker 4 (51:30):
At that point I had at least sixty. But yeah,
I did Daykeeper like that, I did take.

Speaker 6 (51:35):
Off like all of the first album, all the new
kind of record, they.

Speaker 4 (51:39):
Leave it all behind the album. I started getting into
pro tools because somebody told me, like, look, dog, like
if you need just another way you need to really
professionalize or need to was a big word, but like
they were like, yo, most of the pros use pro tools,
and so I started.

Speaker 1 (51:55):
But like, I don't feel bad now because one of
the things that I feel horrible about. You see the
smug look on Steve's face, the way that I've been,
like I've been, I'm in such a zone with his
in game record right now with the roots. But when
I tell you the embarrassingly kind of primitive way that

(52:20):
I'm building this record. Like, yes, I read how half
of Nason and Millions was built by them as an
actual jam session, each guy at a twelve hundred manually
pressing the samples by themselves, not programming.

Speaker 7 (52:34):
Even the mixes too. They would mix and.

Speaker 1 (52:37):
The Beastie Boys admitted that every sample on Paul's boutique
was basically just lined up one by one and then
they would just do that. But there's no like programming
and stuff, and so like I'm also inspired by, like again,
like the whole Sony Acid story and that sort of thing.

Speaker 3 (52:54):
So like I've been like, you're.

Speaker 5 (52:58):
Thinking of the lost Bomb Squad member.

Speaker 3 (53:02):
I just you know, I do.

Speaker 1 (53:03):
But it's just the fact that like James teases me
about it, and like sometimes I let it get to
me that, see, you're not a real beat maker, like
you're actually looping the stuff from your soerrado DJ thing like.

Speaker 7 (53:19):
Exactly. And I think I think I had a little
bit of that.

Speaker 4 (53:21):
I guess what you called imposters where you're like, okay,
I'm not using the Like I remember the first time
I after we met for the first time and connected
had been pressed up.

Speaker 7 (53:32):
We met in New York in July of four, and
we did.

Speaker 4 (53:36):
Something called Beat Society, which is where producers come out
and essentially play their beats. And so I came out
with my little leaptop. You did Beat Society, I did.
I did Beat Society and Knitting Factory, and that's when
of the first time we literally performed together. But I
came out with my laptop and I realized like, okay,
like like everybody else is using MPCs and I'm just

(54:00):
here like as though I'm checking my email, you know, look,
you know, right.

Speaker 7 (54:06):
Like craft for it.

Speaker 4 (54:07):
But it was one of the first times where I realized, like, yeah,
I had no idea, I had no real knowledge of
how the music was made, and I saw I just
used what I know. Again, my brother had introduced me
to I knew Q base existed and stuff like that,
but I didn't know I didn't have that. So it
became a weapon of choice. It became my secret weapon

(54:30):
because I learned to use it in such a way
that I could really make it do whatever I wanted.

Speaker 7 (54:36):
And that was that story.

Speaker 6 (54:37):
I think, like a big part it was really just
about using the tools you have, just making do with
what you have.

Speaker 7 (54:43):
You know. It was when people would ask like, oh.

Speaker 6 (54:45):
Man, so making the Internet, Like, oh man, making an
am that's so crazy, Like it was just this crazy idea.

Speaker 7 (54:51):
And I'm one of those people.

Speaker 10 (54:52):
Yeah, yeah, like dude, he was in the Netherlands, I
was in Durham.

Speaker 4 (54:56):
For us, it was kind of we never even thought
about it, like we were just like yo, like you,
I like what you're doing.

Speaker 7 (55:03):
He likes what I'm doing. Let's do it.

Speaker 1 (55:06):
When you're part of the analog generation though, and I
was very much stuck in my ways person I just
couldn't fathom, like, wait, I don't see how they're doing that,
like emailing stuff at the same time, and like it
was just such a storied, uncharted thing, and like when
did garage band come out?

Speaker 6 (55:24):
Garage band was yeah, that was later garage band for
me personally. I started in garage band two thousand and nine.

Speaker 3 (55:35):
Yeah, two thousand and nine.

Speaker 6 (55:36):
That was when I built my studio at home and
so I had we had worked everything, all the old
LB stuff, like the first two Foreigners Change albums. That
was at the chop shop in Durham and we tracked
all those vocals and cool let it and then oh nine,
I built my studio up the crib and I used

(55:57):
garage band. So like Authenticity My first solo album, Charity
Starts at Home. Yeah all that, all those records like
those are all garage man, garage man.

Speaker 7 (56:09):
It was, Yeah, it was free. What is it the
game changer that people claim that it was or it? Well,
I don't know.

Speaker 6 (56:17):
Well, I don't know if I say for me, it
wasn't so much a game changer. I think it was
just by that time I had learned that, like listen,
it doesn't matter what you're recording into. It's all about
the signal that you're sending. You gotta in the in
the recording process. Really, the recording engineer is god, you
know what I mean, because it's not.

Speaker 7 (56:37):
Gonna your your.

Speaker 6 (56:41):
The record the recording engineer, because your song is not
gonna rise above whatever the signal is. So, you know,
if you got a choice between buying you know, a
crazy Mike, a three thousand dollar mic or whatever, but
you haven't treated your room first, that Mike is just

(57:01):
gonna pick up your room, you know what I mean.
So you probably would be better off spending some money
treating your room. And you get a little, you know,
a little two hundred dollars something and you know, you
can make that work. And so that was kind of
my approach. And so I started doing those records in
Garage Man. And what I liked about it it was
very it was simple. And then also when I upgrade

(57:23):
it to logic in like twenty twelve, logic is basical
garage band on steroids. So how I learned logic was
I would take my old Garage Man sessions and open
them up in logic and just kind of work backwards
and you're like, oh, okay, so this is what reverb is,
this is where the delays is, and I would learn
it like that. So garage band for me, I mean,
you know, people clowned on it, but I made crazy

(57:45):
records in Garage Man.

Speaker 8 (57:46):
But logic was around for a long time before it
turned into the logic we know today. There was a
yeah logic logic that looked that looked what I think
is like you're like matrix. It was it was really
hard to understand, and that's think there was like a
pro tool sequencer, and then finally logic became the visual
thing that it is today. And I think that's that's

(58:07):
what people liked about Garage Man was we looked at
it and it was pleasing to look at and easy
easy to you.

Speaker 6 (58:12):
Nah, because you I mean, because you got to think
about it, like if you mixing something, I mean, you're
looking at that screen for fucking hours. So it was
really from my experience, it was really intuitive. It was
just very easy to use. And I was not the
super techy like engineer guy. I just kind of knew
what I liked and just kind of how to get that.
And that was it, you know what I mean.

Speaker 5 (58:32):
When do you think you'll ever have enough money to
buy pro tools?

Speaker 7 (58:35):
Nah, I'm logic.

Speaker 3 (58:37):
I'm logic to the What was the session?

Speaker 1 (58:44):
Like when you guys are in the same time zone
together and in the studio together?

Speaker 7 (58:51):
Wait?

Speaker 3 (58:52):
What no chemistry to this day?

Speaker 7 (58:55):
Now we this is kind like I like, this is
the rule of the group. You must emails.

Speaker 4 (59:00):
Yeah, I liken it to prints, not wanting to meet,
Like we had such a chemistry going in this way,
like I've always explained it to people, like we each
take care of our part of the music in such
an inhibited personal way that we can fully realize what

(59:23):
we have in mind and then we send it to
the other person versus like being in the.

Speaker 6 (59:29):
Same room here, right right?

Speaker 7 (59:32):
Or are you sure about that word? Or you know
what I mean?

Speaker 4 (59:35):
Like, we always sort of kept it our fifty to
fifty percent of the total separate and would send each other,
I guess fully realized versions of stuff that we thought
could work. And by the time that I came to
the States and started my career here, it almost felt

(59:56):
like it would really break the magic.

Speaker 7 (59:58):
So we never have like to this day.

Speaker 1 (01:00:00):
So can you just briefly tell our listeners viewers how
you guys built the FI community of like the Cat
because it takes a village and obviously, yeah, we're invested
in you guys, but also like Zara and Carlita and
just how and Zoe, Like how how did the community

(01:00:21):
of musicians come together for these projects?

Speaker 7 (01:00:24):
Man?

Speaker 10 (01:00:24):
So, Zoe was someone I actually met.

Speaker 7 (01:00:28):
Zoe.

Speaker 6 (01:00:28):
This was in two thousand and five, maybe six h
This is right after Mintell Show it came out, and
Zoe had been remixing here, did remixes for a couple
LB records. And the thing I always listened for for
producers when they would remix our stuff. Our stuff had
hooks and singing hooks in it, so every producer could
always lock in on the rhymes. It's like you can

(01:00:51):
hear it. It's like, okay, y'all got it, y'all match
the beat? Okay, cool?

Speaker 10 (01:00:54):
What this goddamn hook boy to signd? Like, is this
ship in the same key?

Speaker 7 (01:00:57):
Right?

Speaker 6 (01:00:58):
And the hook would come in and it would just
be a fun and you know what I mean. And
so Zoel was one of the guys like he had
put up a remix that he had did the way
you do it, and I was like, that's the way
you do it, man, Come on, I hope he fucked
this up. I did not know who he was at all,
and I just heard it. I was like, oh, he
smoked this shit. So we did a show LB show
and I think Ann Arbor or something, but he pulled

(01:01:19):
up gave me a copy of his record. He was like,
I'm Zoe. I was like, oh man, yo, yeah, yeah,
check it. So he gives me a copy of his record.
It was the I think it was the Passion and
Definition album, and so it's just an instrumental record he did.
And again I'm still kind of cynical because we had
just been getting trashed that whole fucking tour, and so
I finally got it home.

Speaker 10 (01:01:38):
I'm like, all right, let me I'm gonna give him
a shot.

Speaker 3 (01:01:40):
Let me put it on. Track one was dope.

Speaker 6 (01:01:42):
I'm like, all right, I bet track two won't be dope.
Track two is dope. I'm like, okay, is he gonna
go three in a row? He went like twelve in
a row or whatever, how many songs on that. He
was just smoking that shit. So I reached out to him.
I was like, hey, man, like your shit is hard, bro,
like you know, you want to do something whatever, And
we just started collap Braiden And so that was how
he came into the fold. And then when we did

(01:02:04):
If She Breaks Your Heart, Nick and I had the
idea of like, okay, zoel like he does like the
first half.

Speaker 3 (01:02:11):
And then Nick did like the second.

Speaker 6 (01:02:13):
Second, you know, four hero Yeah, Boston. Yeah, we got
shot to Mark Mack, who did the string range.

Speaker 7 (01:02:20):
Yeah, Mark Man. But yeah, So that was kind of
how he came.

Speaker 6 (01:02:23):
And everybody else, man, they were just all they were
just all people that, like, you know, Carlita was a
student at Central at the time, and we needed a
hook for a song, and yazirob she and I went
to school together. We went to Central together. Darien Brockington,
he and I we went to Central together. Carlita, she
was a Central student. Yaz was supposed to sing on

(01:02:44):
the song one night and I called her to do
the hook. She was out of town. Called my man.
He was like, yo, dog, I know this singing chick
from Central.

Speaker 7 (01:02:52):
I'm like okay.

Speaker 6 (01:02:53):
And he shows up and it was Carlita and she
did the hook for Life of the Party for the
LB song and from that he just started working together. Man,
I mean shit, Mosina was somebody. My man shots my man.
Cousin B, who's uh he run? You know, he's the
NPR Tiny desk guy. Now, Mosina had a MySpace page

(01:03:13):
and we had just started I think we had kind
of started leaving all. We might have had maybe one
two tracks, but he had. She had a MySpace page
and she had a song on it called Millions and
me and Darien brox and we want to it what
They'll be and we were roommates. Cousin B sends me
the link. He's like, yo, man, check this chick. She
sounded like Georgia and I was like, oh shit, you

(01:03:34):
talk about Georgia and Modreaux and I listened to millions
and if that song had a thousand plays on her MySpace,
nine hundred and ninety of them was me.

Speaker 7 (01:03:44):
And we played that shit. I was like, holy shit.

Speaker 6 (01:03:47):
And I just reached out to her and I was like, Yo, man,
I'm working on a new FE album. I don't know
if you know who I am whatever, but I think
you dope. A couple months later, she came down to
the crib, you know what I'm saying. We locked in
and we did Daykeeper, her House of Cards and Something
to behold for Leave it all behind everybody else.

Speaker 7 (01:04:04):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:04:04):
I just I always looked at because you know, our
division of labor, Nick is very much the music, and
I'm more like personnel, you know what I'm saying production
in that side. So I always looked at Fie albums.
Whenever people would ask me like, yo, what do you
listen to? I put the people that I was listening
to on the albums. I'm like, Yo, Mussina, this is
who I'm wucking with, you know. Gwen Bunn shouts to her.

(01:04:29):
She was just another artist out of Atlanta and she
did a record for my man Daryl Reeve. She did
a cover of every Time I see You by Roy
Ayers and smoked that ship. I was like, dude, who
the fuck is this? He was like, it's my girl, Gwen.
She came to the show that night, you know what
I mean. We hooked up and did Kate turn around
and we did like a couple of after the show,

(01:04:52):
or this was maybe a couple of months afterward. Be
my fiasco. Who's like the latest signing on our label.
She was somebody who was based out of Dallas and
she would just always.

Speaker 7 (01:05:06):
Twitter.

Speaker 6 (01:05:06):
There's another kind of like the Okay player next the
kind of way. She was someone who big fie fan
would come to our shows.

Speaker 7 (01:05:15):
And one day, much like Nikolay.

Speaker 3 (01:05:18):
She came on Twitter and was like, Yo, this is
a new record by me.

Speaker 7 (01:05:21):
Check this out.

Speaker 6 (01:05:22):
It's very foreign exchange influence, and I thought it was dope.
So she and I hit her one time and I
was like, hey, man, do you have the ability to
record at your home?

Speaker 3 (01:05:29):
You got your own setup?

Speaker 7 (01:05:30):
She was like yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:05:31):
So I put her on the record deal with Glass Violets,
the Miles Davis that's her singing on that. And I
would just put her on records, you know what I mean,
I'm like, yo, sing this She she sings something and like,
you know, we was just.

Speaker 3 (01:05:45):
Rock like that.

Speaker 1 (01:05:46):
So guys are meeting or like, nah, this is all online.
So smith called blind date.

Speaker 6 (01:05:53):
Yeah, man, try I mean, listen, it's just you known
to me, it's just jailuso. The final result jels are
good that I imagine that you guys were in the
room together.

Speaker 7 (01:06:04):
We were in all those records.

Speaker 6 (01:06:05):
All that stuff was done pretty much remotely, I think,
uh no, listen. So when COVID hit, that's crazy. So
when COVID hit, because a lot of times for the vocals,
like that was my side. So my house used to
be the spot where everyone recorded because I had to
set up and everything. So that's why we would track

(01:06:27):
the vocals. But COVID hit and it was just like, well,
we can't do that. So we just pretty much invested
and set all our team up.

Speaker 3 (01:06:35):
It's like, all right, look, y'all need this.

Speaker 6 (01:06:37):
We're gonna get y'all this the mic, you need this, compressor,
you need this, you need that, and we just set
our team up remotely. So all through COVID, we were
still cooking. We ain't miss a beat, you know, I mean,
so that always the right equipment for each other. Yeah, yeah, man,
just like, okay, you need this compressor. I'm a big
fan of the I'm a big fan of La two A.
I do't'ta go too nerdy with it, but I'm a

(01:06:58):
big fan of La two A compressor.

Speaker 3 (01:06:59):
That's just my favorite. It's just two knobs.

Speaker 7 (01:07:02):
It's like, you know what I.

Speaker 6 (01:07:03):
Mean, It's it's it's simple, like you know, it's like
it's like the big Green Egg of compressors.

Speaker 3 (01:07:08):
Know you have that Steve Green that's a barbecue and microphone.

Speaker 7 (01:07:14):
I'm trying to think.

Speaker 6 (01:07:15):
Yeah, Sismith her, we did her album, she came and God,
when did I come on?

Speaker 4 (01:07:22):
I met Cy and O four, I did a record
with sign Yeah, and then we had a show in
twenty ten where we needed a new female vocalist and
I was like, well, I could call Sy, but she's
gonna have to have a chemistry with Fante.

Speaker 7 (01:07:39):
We're gonna have to see and that worked out.

Speaker 4 (01:07:41):
Nah, they well, So so went to Europe with us,
you know, and I think with all of the people
that we've ever had on our roster, it was partly
musical talent, partly like.

Speaker 7 (01:07:53):
The hangability factor, that's the big part.

Speaker 1 (01:07:56):
Like I just never thought that, like, because I've seen
situations where new members will get inducted into shows and
the chemistry might not be right and that affects the
show that you see. You guys are like torn together
doing shows and always wondered how and actually doing like
nice little presentational things like I'm wondering, like how you

(01:08:18):
guys even rehearsing, well, rehearsing.

Speaker 6 (01:08:20):
That's what we got to do that in person, you can't.
You can't rehearse online. But right we were rehearsing, not
a whole lot, not a whole lot.

Speaker 4 (01:08:28):
Yeah, because it's still the first show of the tour was.

Speaker 7 (01:08:33):
But yeah, I mean we would just like start with
that and Zoe.

Speaker 6 (01:08:36):
Actually, when we did Leave It All Behind, that was
really a thing where Nick and I we kind of
saw ourselves more as like a steely Dan kind of
studio band. We had no intentions of touring whatsoever, like none,
and so Leave It All Behind came out and our
management director of opsite the time, Amy she was, she

(01:08:56):
called me one day and was like, Yo, this is
right after the album came out, and she was like, Yo,
no kid, theater they want to book y'all for a show,
and we was like a show. What are you talking about?
She was like, they want a Foreign and Shane show.
Nick and I had no idea how we were going
to present this material.

Speaker 7 (01:09:11):
Playing m P three listen.

Speaker 10 (01:09:13):
I mean, you could have did that, but it was
when I called.

Speaker 7 (01:09:17):
I was like, yeah, we gotta build this up.

Speaker 6 (01:09:19):
So that was when I hit zol and I was like, yo, bro,
like you know you want to help with this, and
he became our m D you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 7 (01:09:26):
So yeah, so that was kind of how it came.

Speaker 6 (01:09:29):
But yeah, man, we were just making records purely just
to make the records. We had no idea, no clue
of wanting to present it live like that just was
not on our RADI.

Speaker 1 (01:09:39):
So what response was it when you guys got nominated
for a Grammy?

Speaker 3 (01:09:44):
Like what at that point was it? Like, were you
guys actively campaigning for it?

Speaker 10 (01:09:49):
I had, and they were like congratuation.

Speaker 3 (01:09:52):
No, that's leg legit.

Speaker 10 (01:09:53):
I was knocked out.

Speaker 7 (01:09:55):
And what had happened was.

Speaker 4 (01:09:59):
We we never really submitted it, you know how normal
like nowadays, somebody has to submit.

Speaker 7 (01:10:08):
At the time, there were these committees.

Speaker 4 (01:10:11):
I think they at this point have done away with
them because there were some concerns about democracy and they don't.

Speaker 7 (01:10:16):
Even have I think the category we nominate for is
not the category doesn't even exist. But essentially, yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:10:23):
What happened was somebody on the committee at the time
and I know who it is, but that's not really
super relevant, entered that record.

Speaker 7 (01:10:34):
As a.

Speaker 4 (01:10:36):
Record with merit that hadn't been selected by the members,
just as another suggestion, and it made it through the
nominations list, which is kind of miraculous because we never campaigned.
And so Yazra called me and she was like, are
you sitting down? And I was like, I don't know,

(01:10:57):
like should I be? And she was like, she's like,
tomorrow the nominations are gonna come out and we're in it.

Speaker 7 (01:11:04):
And I just didn't really.

Speaker 4 (01:11:08):
It took a while to register because like, as much
as I was very sure of our merit, like that
was beyond my wildest dreams, as I'm sure you would
have been the first time, Like as much as you
strive for that sort of professional acknowledgement, we were so
niche in a lot of ways. And at the same time,

(01:11:28):
I guess we had touched enough people that it that
it went all the way up there. So I called
Fantee was asleep. I don't know if I left you
a voiceman.

Speaker 7 (01:11:37):
We talked. I remember that I was not there. You were.
You woke up. You were like, oh, bro, we want grant.
Well we up for a Grammy.

Speaker 6 (01:11:44):
I was like, oh, Ship, word up, all right, and
I went back to until I woke up. And then
I saw because this is back on the BlackBerry days.
Bro my, Yeah, man, my ship was going crazy. This
is like birthday Twitter.

Speaker 7 (01:11:59):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:11:59):
It was just I was like, oh shit, we got
nominated for a Grammy, and so yeah, it was it
was just yeah crazy. I think for us, it really
was just a validation of our art. And it just
was like, you know, we did that record ourselves, Like
we had no machine behind us. It was no major label, like,
it was none of that. It was just me, Nick

(01:12:20):
and Amy just thugging that shit out and so, you know,
it was it was a real It was a moment
for me because that was I mean, we I talked
about it in the Doctor.

Speaker 3 (01:12:30):
Just on the business side.

Speaker 6 (01:12:32):
Foreign Exchange was the first time that I in my
time in the music business, that was the first time
I was ever really paid for my work, like ever,
you know, that was the first time I really to
enjoy some oh yeah, yeah, like we we did when
we did Leave It All Behind, and you know, we
just put it out and we had talked about because

(01:12:54):
at that time, I think BBE they was knocking.

Speaker 10 (01:12:56):
They wanted to real, they wanted to do they were interested.

Speaker 6 (01:13:00):
And we looked at the deal and the deal was
cool and BBE shouts to b B shouts to pe p
Eddie b eddib No, they did it right by it
so on on connected. So we were open. Was like all, yeah,
let's see. But by that time, you know, Nick and
I was like, yo, man, like, bro, let's what if
we try to do this ourselves.

Speaker 10 (01:13:15):
Man, I think we can be pretty much. I think
we can do this.

Speaker 6 (01:13:18):
And so uh, you know Neo over here he ran
the numbers through his matrix. He was like, yeah, man,
so I think yeah, d I'm like, all right, fucking
let's go.

Speaker 7 (01:13:28):
And so we did it.

Speaker 6 (01:13:29):
And so yeah, my first check, like our first statement
off the first month of sales to Leave It All Behind,
was like twenty five grand. That was more than I
had seen off the last four or five Little brother
albums four three albums at that time.

Speaker 7 (01:13:43):
Wow. And so and it wasn't so much.

Speaker 6 (01:13:45):
It was again just having what I saw was just
the transparency of like, listen, dude, if I owe you,
if if I owe you a dollar, just show me
a piece of paper showing that saying that how I
owe you this dollar?

Speaker 7 (01:13:59):
You know what I mean.

Speaker 3 (01:14:00):
But I had never had that at no point in
my career. I know that moment was right fam. It
was like four since hanging up in the studio.

Speaker 6 (01:14:08):
So so finally when we put out that record, man,
that was really the start of our label. And we
started it in eight so this is like right around
the time. This is like when the economy is like
going crazy, right around the crash and everything. And I
think my mentality was, I if we can launch a
label during a fucking recession and survive, then we can
make this ship.

Speaker 3 (01:14:29):
And it's been sixteen years, I.

Speaker 1 (01:14:31):
Got admit, man, I say this with a little bit
of shame. The two thousand and eight for that year,
that was the first year that I actively voted in
the Grammys, even the three that I won before, I
didn't vote in that. Like, we just happened to win.
But you know, it was on the road and I
missed the ballot.

Speaker 7 (01:14:52):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:14:53):
I tried to be a part, like because after we
got the nomination, they hit us.

Speaker 7 (01:14:57):
It was like, hey, you know, do you want to
be in whatever?

Speaker 6 (01:15:00):
And I'm like, all right, cool, But then I saw
like you had to go to meetings and ship.

Speaker 8 (01:15:04):
I was like, I want to do this process itself
is so like there's so much yeah stuff, Yeah, it's politics,
it's it was just a lot of things that I saw.

Speaker 6 (01:15:13):
It didn't really I just wanted to make music this
period and that was just side of the game. I
understood it, and I understood the importance of it. But yeah,
I remember my my Grammy lesson. We were at like
the Grammy post Grammy brunch or whatever for Grammy dinner
or whatever, and I was in line like greating to

(01:15:34):
get some food and stuff, and it was this older
lady that was in front of me and we just
started talking and she.

Speaker 7 (01:15:40):
Was like, so, you know what what brings? What you
doing here?

Speaker 3 (01:15:42):
And I was like, yeah, my group for in Exchange.

Speaker 6 (01:15:44):
We were nominated for a Grammy and I said, you
know we lost this year. I said we lost to Indie.
I re because that year we lost to uh Indi Ira.
She did a cover of Pearls by Shade, and so
she was just like, I'll never get it. I said, yeah,
you know, we lost lost to India, you know what
I mean. And she said, yeah, it's hard to vote
against her. And I was just like, vote for Tracy Flick.

(01:16:09):
I understand, you know what I.

Speaker 7 (01:16:10):
Mean, you know what I mean. You know what I mean,
you know what I mean.

Speaker 6 (01:16:16):
It's an election, you know what I mean. It's I'm like,
I got it. It's this is a campaign. You know,
It's not a meritocracy. And once I understood that, I
was just like, okay, cool. It wasn't no bitterness or nothing.
I'm like, okay, that's what the game is, you know
what I mean. But but now, man, the Grammy nod
was no, it was. It was incredible. Just have that experience.

(01:16:38):
And I think me and I we went, we had
our suits and all that ship.

Speaker 4 (01:16:41):
I remember, oh yeah, yeah, yeah. There were two related memories,
like you invited us to the Roots Jam Grammy Jam,
which was a big we did day Keeper that night,
but you also said it with us like I remember, like,
so it was me and Tay and Yazra on stage

(01:17:05):
and I was just doing the keyboards and I remember hearing.

Speaker 7 (01:17:09):
Some drums at some point.

Speaker 4 (01:17:11):
This was not pre planned, and you just sat in
with us and it was like one of those things
that I'll never forget because it was really kind of
a It was a moment for us that felt like
we were accepted by a larger Like obviously you had
been a champion of us in general through Okay Player,
but like it was kind of that moment where you realize, like, Okay,

(01:17:34):
we might have a future in this, Like this might
be you know, there were a lot of people that
we met, Nah.

Speaker 6 (01:17:39):
Seeing the getting props from the ogs. I'm like, we
did like we did Kissing Grind. We performed at Victor's thing,
and we performed with a pickup band for the first
and last time ever.

Speaker 7 (01:17:50):
We never doing that shit no more.

Speaker 6 (01:17:54):
But like, but during sound check, you know, weird singing
is me yahs. Yeah, it was me and Yards at
that time. We I don't think Darien wasn't it was.
It was just it was just me and y'alls are singing.
And so afterwards, you know, I walk off stage and
it's this lady.

Speaker 3 (01:18:10):
There and I'm looking at trying to figure out who
she is, and she's.

Speaker 6 (01:18:13):
Like that was some real singing right there, and I
love that was some good singing. I like that it's
fucking Anne Nesby from Sounds of Black, and I'm just like,
holy shit, you know what I mean.

Speaker 7 (01:18:23):
So that's that was the year we met every like
Quincy Jones, Charlie Charlie will Wilson.

Speaker 4 (01:18:32):
Like it was really kind of we were rubbing shoulders
with everybody that we admired, and we went to all
of the events that you know, like the irony is
like as a Grammy nominee, you don't get to go
for free. It's still a pricey endeavor. And we didn't
really have the money to campaign, so we just like, look,
we're gonna go. We're gonna go to all of these events,

(01:18:55):
like there's a producer thing at the Village Studio, like
you know what I mean, like all the things that
you were very familiar with. We did hire a publicist
to help us through the red carpet thing, like because
that was like I recommended that we would to make
the most of it. But it was kind of like
one of those things where we realized, like as much

(01:19:16):
fun as it is, like I don't know if we
truly belong here and at the same time, the acceptance
of it felt really good. I remember personally feeling very
proud because this was something I could tell my parents
and my family, and it made what I did very
real versus like, oh I just.

Speaker 7 (01:19:34):
Make me you know what I mean. It was kind
of thing in the United States.

Speaker 4 (01:19:38):
Yeah, right, it was a moment of like, Okay, this
is like kind of a real thing, and so you know,
but I haven't really ever pursued another number and that
like like in the same way, because like, ultimately, I
think we both realized that for us, it was much
more important to make the music versus being the campaigners.

Speaker 6 (01:19:58):
Like literally, as soon as it was over with, as
soon as like, you know, Jam announced, you know, the
India Wan for the joint, I think me and Nick
just kind of look at Jones like, all right, bro,
you're ready to get back.

Speaker 7 (01:20:09):
In the studio, looking like a lount of time. Yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:20:12):
Well yeah, we were like all right with you the time.
I'm like, yeah, we can you go back to the studio.
He was just cool year with us.

Speaker 4 (01:20:18):
That was the actual twenty ten.

Speaker 10 (01:20:23):
Yeah, yeah, I'm dropping wah.

Speaker 7 (01:20:25):
Nine So yeah, twenty.

Speaker 4 (01:20:26):
Nine is one of the nominations twenty ten.

Speaker 1 (01:20:30):
How hard was it for you to sort of uproot
yourself from living over there in the Netherlands and coming
to the United States to be yeah, to.

Speaker 7 (01:20:42):
Be dead ass to the middle of it. Weird? Did
you move? I moved in six.

Speaker 4 (01:20:48):
Basically what happened was connected did really good. And bb
our man Eddie b was our a n R guy
at like he was he and the American part of bbe.

Speaker 7 (01:21:03):
Which we were. We never dealt with the UK guy
so much.

Speaker 4 (01:21:05):
And Eddie had a vision of like a roster of
releases that were all foreign exchange related, like a Nicola album,
maybe a Darian album, maybe a Yazra album. And so
he first brought up to me, he was like, look like,
if you want, we could sponsor you for a visa

(01:21:26):
because that's what would be required.

Speaker 7 (01:21:29):
And so they ended up they ended up doing it.

Speaker 4 (01:21:31):
I realized that at the time, kind of going back
to our conversation of how my sound was perceived, that
I knew that back in Europe I didn't have a
chance to really pursue a music career, certainly not in
a touring capacity or otherwise. And my dream was again
like as this music that I saw as inherently American.

(01:21:52):
It felt like it made sense to come to the
States and pursue a music career, and so I was
awarded with a one visa, which was a big deal.
But yeah, it involved leaving, like and that's what leave
it All Behind.

Speaker 7 (01:22:07):
Partly alludes to.

Speaker 4 (01:22:09):
It did involve leaving my family, like my parents are
still there, my brother and sister. So it's been it's
been bittersweet in the sense that it was the right
decision to make, but it wasn't an easy decision to make,
and it will always be something where I realized that
I did have to leave something behind that.

Speaker 7 (01:22:31):
That is not necessarily easy to replace. Which city did you? So?

Speaker 4 (01:22:36):
I moved to Wilmington, North Carolina. Because so this is
kind of a.

Speaker 7 (01:22:41):
Yeah, yeah, it's a it's a beach beach sign right on.

Speaker 4 (01:22:44):
This has got like a cool, sort of quick anecdote
that made me realize that North Carolina was kind of
always in my crosshairs. As a kid, I had a puzzle,
a jigsaw puzzle, and it was a mansion, just like
a Southern man who would all to Magnolia's. And I
really like jigsaw puzzles as a kid, and I would

(01:23:05):
make this jigsaw puzzle. And basically what I found out
once I moved to the Wilmington area was that that
mansion on that puzzle is actually a mansion that is
there in that local area, which I would have never known.
So that made it almost like a serendipity kind of thing.

(01:23:27):
I remember, like North Carolina had this sort of magic
to it by way of Fante and everybody that was there,
like it seemed like foreign exchange already before I moved,
was a North Carolinian group, and so he would talk
about Raleigh, he would talk about Durham, and it always
like I always thought, like what if one day I

(01:23:47):
actually get to be there and sort of like know
what that is like. And even yesterday we took a
little trip to sort of see a lot of those
early locations where Fonte is like first apartment after college,
and I.

Speaker 3 (01:24:03):
Wrote all those songs.

Speaker 7 (01:24:04):
Yeah, yeah, this near.

Speaker 1 (01:24:06):
So when I think of North Carolina and beach life,
I think of Cape Fear.

Speaker 7 (01:24:10):
Yeah yeah, literally Cape here River.

Speaker 3 (01:24:13):
I'm on the k yeah for Taraka and I.

Speaker 1 (01:24:17):
The soundtrack to Organics is we get home from recording
at like two three in the morning, we watched.

Speaker 3 (01:24:24):
Do the Right thing and Cape fear. Yeah, like just
night after night.

Speaker 7 (01:24:28):
It's weird selection.

Speaker 3 (01:24:29):
Yeah, yeah, that's the most opposite. Okay, sorry yo, No,
it's just like but it was a tradition.

Speaker 1 (01:24:36):
We would get famous same as cookies, a half gallon
of Barns juice and then you just get in the
crib and put because the news will be on it.
It's like ninety two, like you know, I mean, cable
culture was sort of the thing, but you know, we
didn't have like the Internet, so it's just like, all right,
get your VHS tape that has to do the right
thing and kp here like six in the morning, watch

(01:24:58):
it every night.

Speaker 9 (01:24:59):
So was that the remake or the original with gregor
not like both versions, but Scorsese versions my favorite.

Speaker 4 (01:25:10):
Yeah yeah, yeah yeah, So back to your question, Like,
it's been, like I think, in a lot of ways,
like I've I've learned a lot about America in those years,
a lot through the people that I've surrounded myself with.
I came here sort of when it was Obama era.

Speaker 7 (01:25:28):
Yeah, it felt.

Speaker 4 (01:25:29):
Very Yeah, I've been now through that going now right,
So it's been really interesting. Obviously, it's politically a completely
different world from what I'm used to, but that's a
whole other story.

Speaker 7 (01:25:45):
But it's been, it's been interesting. It's been. Really.

Speaker 4 (01:25:50):
I often tell people that in order to appreciate where
you're from, it is sometimes helpful to not be there
for a while. And so, like, the interesting thing is,
once I moved, I gained a much greater appreciation for
where I'm from, going back, going back home, and it
just all of a sudden started looking a little bit

(01:26:10):
like different. And that's been. That's been very interesting.

Speaker 7 (01:26:15):
All right.

Speaker 1 (01:26:16):
So to wrap it up, this is a for me
in an important moment in development history, and hopefully you know,
history is kind to you guys in terms of really
acknowledging how early guys were in the game of how
we now make music, Like you know, you guys were
so early, and this this level of the first digital generation,

(01:26:41):
pre SoundCloud, pre you know, like pre Gmail, yes.

Speaker 7 (01:26:46):
Right, social media Google? Like what was Google back then?

Speaker 10 (01:26:50):
So no, man, it was really not it was okay,
player really was.

Speaker 6 (01:26:54):
I mean it was just you know, I don't think
y'all understood what y'all built, but you know it really was, uh,
you know, just you were able to really find your
tribe there and you know, I don't think Nick and
I would have found each other on any other site.
We wasn't wouldn't found each other on you know, anywhere else.
It was just that fucking online asylum that is, okay, player,

(01:27:15):
we found each other and uh you know, our movement
with Fie, it really was a lot of it was
inspired you know by so Quariums of course, by you know,
Dungeon family, just understanding the power of having a crew
and that y'all each work to make each other better
and like collaborate with each other, and you know, you're

(01:27:36):
able to keep records out without burning yourself out.

Speaker 7 (01:27:40):
You know what I'm saying.

Speaker 6 (01:27:41):
If like, if you got to do a fantee solo
album every year for five years, you done, like it's over, you.

Speaker 7 (01:27:47):
Know what I mean.

Speaker 3 (01:27:48):
But if it's okay, I got.

Speaker 1 (01:27:50):
Feel Yeah, we can produce for other people.

Speaker 10 (01:27:53):
We can write, we can do things, you know, we
can do.

Speaker 6 (01:27:55):
Sesame street songs like you know what I mean. All
kind of so so now I'm man. It was that
that level of community was certainly influenced by uh so
aquarians again, you know, organized noise, just all of just
those big collectors just you know, just seeing seeing y'all
in that that vibe, the infamous vibe picture.

Speaker 7 (01:28:18):
Yes, I mean it got us.

Speaker 6 (01:28:21):
Real though, but yeah, but seeing that and being like, okay,
like we can do that, and y'all's a right. At
the time, she was singing for Erica team background for Erica,
So she was one of the first people that I
saw as a professional musician and like saw what that
grind was, like you know what I mean, and so yeah, man, yeah,
I'm just thankful.

Speaker 7 (01:28:39):
But you know, it was all came full circle.

Speaker 1 (01:28:40):
Well, we're gonna have to also do like a part
two stories because we didn't even get to my favorite
like getting you talked about flying colors or or like
authenticity or like any of my my favorite moments off
the records.

Speaker 7 (01:28:53):
But could you a part you on online or whatever? Yes?

Speaker 10 (01:28:56):
Absolutely, yeah, yeah they do it online.

Speaker 7 (01:28:59):
Do it for the shame?

Speaker 5 (01:29:00):
That would makes sense actually right right right.

Speaker 7 (01:29:02):
At one time.

Speaker 1 (01:29:04):
We said, definitely did it that way? All right, go
back home, both, y'all. No, I want be having a
Okay player, yes, thank you, Yes, I won't be having
a k player and then won't be haalf of q LS.

Speaker 3 (01:29:18):
Uh Bill, Steve, Wait.

Speaker 7 (01:29:21):
Where did like to go?

Speaker 1 (01:29:23):
She was just here, uh myself and of course like the.

Speaker 7 (01:29:27):
Famo of the q LS.

Speaker 1 (01:29:28):
Thanks Foreign Exchange for joining us for this episode. That
person episode of Quest Love Supreme. We'll see on the
next go around. Y'all peace, Thank you for listening to
Quest Love Supreme.

Speaker 6 (01:29:40):
This podcast is hosted by a Mere Quest Love Thompson,
Big Boss Man, Light Here, Saint Clair, So Black and
the Black Myself Fan, tigelow Fante Goldman Sugar, Steve.

Speaker 7 (01:29:52):
Mandell, and Unpaid Bill Sherman.

Speaker 6 (01:29:55):
The executive producers are a Mere Quest Love Thompson, Sean
g and Be Unbothered Brian Calhoun. Produced by Britney Benjamin
my dog cousin, Jake Payne, my motherfucking man and like
is Saint Clair my work wife.

Speaker 7 (01:30:10):
Edited by Alex Conroy. Produced for iHeart by Noel Brown.

Speaker 1 (01:30:21):
West Love Supreme is a production of iHeart Radio. For
more podcasts from iHeart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

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